Certain semiconductor architectures such as advanced extensible interface (AXI) and open core protocol (OCP)-based architectures are modular and allow for rapid proliferation by quickly adding or deleting intellectual property (IP) blocks from an existing design. Though these IP blocks (also referred to as IPs) offer a rich set of functionality, they cannot be used in a personal computer (PC) system, as they lack some key features required for peripheral component interconnect (PCI) compatibility. For example, these IPs operate at fixed addresses, precluding plug-and-play; there is no mechanism for discovery and enumeration; PCI-style ordering is not implemented; and PCI-style power management features are missing.
For peripheral devices for use in PC-compatible systems, interconnect specifications mix the transaction level with the physical level for the interfaces. Indeed, since these specifications cover external, physical devices, both of these levels need to be defined. However, for system on a chip (SoC) systems, mixing the transactional level with the physical level of the interface definition limits reuse of components as silicon processes change. Some external, non-PC-compatible systems have adopted transactional-level interfaces for their IP components. However, these systems cannot be made PC-compatible because various features are missing in their interfaces that are needed for PC compatibility.